Marcel Theroux ITVX Doc On Playboy Bunny Murders; Vinnie Jones Discovery+ Reno Series; BBC Comedy Bursaries

Marcel Theroux To Investigate Playboy Bunny Murders

Louis Theroux’s brother Marcel Theroux is to investigate the playboy bunny murders for ITVX. In The Playboy Bunny Murders, the novelist will examine the brutal murders that shocked London in the 1970s, when Eve Stratford, a Playboy Bunny who aspired to be a famous model, Lynda Farrow, a croupier with years of experience working in nighttime London, and Lynne Weedon, a schoolgirl whose whole life lay ahead of her, were all murdered. ITVX has gained exclusive access to friends, colleagues and relatives of the victims and will provide intimate insight, as Theroux attempts to track down police files, examines new breakthroughs and travels across the world in search of answers. Soho Studios and Future Studios are producing the two-parter for the ITV streaming service. Theroux said the story has “obsessed him for years.” Executive producers are Ian Lamarra for Soho Studios and John Farrar for Future Studios.

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Vinnie Jones Fronts Discovery+ Reno Series ‘The Wild Life’

Snatch and Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels star Vinnie Jones is fronting a Discovery+ doc series in the UK. Titled Vinnie Jones: The Wild Life (working title), the six-part series will see the actor and former football hard man embark on a mission to transform his dilapidated West Sussex farm into a sustainable utopia. All3Media’s Lime Pictures is attached to make the show, with Charlie Clay is executive producer. “Most people know me as a professional footballer or Hollywood hardman, but what people probably don’t know is that all of that hard work has been to support my real passion: my home in the Great British countryside,” said Jones. The series is the first order from Warner Bros Discovery’s UK arm since Deadline revealed earlier this week it was reviewing its commissioning strategy in the face of tough economic conditions. In that piece, we reported several commissions for 2023 and 2024 made before the review would be announced in coming weeks. Clare Laycock, Warner Bros. Discovery UK & Ireland’s SVP, Content, Networks & Streaming, ordered the series, which was commissioned by Charlotte Reid, VP Commissioning. Matt Reid is Commissioning Executive for Discovery+.

BBC Names Comedy Collective Bursary Scheme Recipients

BBC Director of Comedy Jon Petrie has unveiled the first ten recipients of the BBC Comedy Collective bursary scheme for up-and-coming writers, producers and directors. Each receive up to £10,000 ($12,400) in paid shadowing on a BBC Comedy production and a £5,000 ($6,200) development grant. They also get access to the BBC Comedy commissioning team and Comedy Collective reps. The recipients are: Benjamin Bee, Chloe Brown, Eleri Morgan, Laith Elzubaidi, Michael Patrick and Oisín Kearney, Miranda Holms, Nosa Eke, Rachel Wilson and Sarah Grant. Another £50,000 ($62,000) of grants for under-represented groups in comedy from across the UK go to Northern Ireland’s Coven Comedy and Fat Panda Media, the North East’s Felt Nowt and Laurels, Scotland’s Stepping Stones, London’s Your Cinena and Comedy 50:50, Liverpool/London’s Best In Class, Manchester’s Cultural Comedy Tours and North Wales’ Gwneud.